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SECTION III.

The Women from Galilee hasten to return Home before the
Sabbath began, to prepare Spices.

LUKE Xxiii. 56.

La.xxiii.56. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; Jerusalem.

bedee's house, originally, we may imagine, an obscure build-
ing, could be recovered, when the whole city had been razed
to its foundations. But Jerusalem stood on the risings aud
sinkings of very uneven grounds, intersected as well as encom-
passed with walls, the bases of which would remain; and thus
the parts into which it had been distributed, and the contents
of each division, were more easily recollected and ascertained,
than if the like calamity had befallen a city built on a plain.
And the Christians who had retired to Pella, and the mountains
beyond Jordan, before the siege, being returned to it after its
destruction, would be guided by certain standing marks to the
structures which they had before held in veneration. And to
rebuild them as near as might be in the old places, and call them
again by their old names, might be no unpleasing consolation
to those who were resettled in the fallen city. Nor from the
desolation of Jerusalem to the present day, has the succession
of its Christian inhabitants been ever long interrupted; often
as it has changed its masters, and suffered by its conquerors,
Romans, Persians, Saracens, Mamalues, and Ottomans. If
fable had added its conceits to traditionary truths in these mat-
ters, yet I do not find that it has interested itself about Zebe-
dee, or told any thing of him that required his presence, or an
abode for him at Jerusalem. The true reason why a house is
assigned him in it, seems to have been, that he really had one,
the same probably which his son St. John called his own house
(John xix. 27.); it might come to them from their ancestors:
and Zebedee, though he resided in Galilee, might feel the usual
reluctance to part with his inheritance, and that in the holy
city. It might even be more valuable to him and his friends, at
the great festivals, and on other occasions, than the price of a
dwelling in such a part of the city.

In order therefore to illustrate this plan, Dr. Townson has
given in his elaborate work a very satisfactory map of Jerusa-
Tem, on which we may rely, as it is not one of arbitrary con-
struction, but compiled from ancient documents, by Villalpan-
dus. In this map are distinctly pointed out the site of the house
of Zebedee, of St. Mark, of St. James, and St. Thomas.

Villalpandus was a learned Spaniard of Cordova, well known for the commentary on Ezekiel, and designs of Solomon's temple; and celebrated by many authors of name for his skill and accuracy in these researches. Among other eminent men who had adopted his topography of Jerusalem as the most satisfactory, is Bishop Walton, in his Polyglot.

These four houses that are numbered in Dr. Townson's map, and did not come properly under the consideration of Villalpandus, are from the view of Jerusalem, given by Cotovicus, an eminent civilian of Utrecht, who visited Palestine in the year of our Lord 1598.

Though in this view he sets down the Dung-gate not as it stands in Villalpandus, but as in the present city much changed in situation and shape from its ancient shape; yet be places the houses in question precisely as they are disposed in Villalpandus's map, near to a line by which he distinguishes the course of the wall that divided the old city from Mount Calvary. Herman

Lu.xxiii.56. and rested the sabbath-day according to the command- Jerusalem.

ment.

Witsius says of him, that he examined Jerusalem with curious
eyes. And so certainly thought a traveller of great note, who
was there about twelve years after him, our countryman Mr.
George Sandys. For the drawings of Cotovicus, of the temple
of the Holy Sepulchre, and other parts of Jerusalem, are closely
followed in Sandys' travels; and the praise which Mr. Maun-
drell bestows on the latter for exactness in these matters belongs
equally to the other.

The map of Villalpandus, with the addition of the houses from
Cotovicus, illustrates the incidents of the morning of the resur-
rection, as if it was fabricated for that very purpose. And yet
we may venture to affirm, that these learned men had not the
most distant idea of the use to which their designs are appli.
cable. Their notion, it may be presumed, was the same as was
generally entertained, that the women all went to the sepulchre
in one company, which is not particularly favoured by either
place separately; and, when they are thus united, is rather
discountenanced by them; for hence it appears, while all the
women were hastening to the same place, how much time some
of them must lose by going to join the others, for the sake of
setting out with them. The history not being framed to tally
with the map, nor the map with the history, their undesigned
agreement adds to the credibility of both.

Leaving, however, all arguments of this nature, let us consider the more authentic evidence derived from the sacred narrative itself, that the women were divided into two parties. These, for the sake of method and clearness, shall be reduced under certain heads.

1. St. Mark's account of the women that went to the tomb on the morning of the resurrection does, in just construction, exclude all but those whom he names.

He speaks of these women, or some of them, in the five following places: First, There were also women looking afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less, and of Joses and Salome; xv. 40. Secondly, And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid; ibid. ver. 47. Thirdly, And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought sweet spices, that they might go and anoint him; xvi. 1. Fourthly, And very early in the morning of the first day of the week they go unto the tomb; ibid. ver. 2. Fifthly, Now Jesus, having risen early the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene; ibid. ver. 9.

2. St. Luke's account does not include the women named by St. Mark; it bears tokens of being the description of an entirely distinct company.

In speaking of the women that attended the body of Christ from the cross to the tomb, St. Luke does not say, the women also that came with him from Galilee; but, as we shall find, if we consult the original, "women also that came with him from Galilee," (Luke xxiii. 55.) there being no article accompanying yuvaikes; which therefore allows us, with good reason, to conjecture that he intended to comprehend only the majority, not the whole company of these women, in his subsequent account of them: nor at present does he mention any of them by name. He speaks of them as follows: "And women also that came with him from Galilee followed after, and beheld the tomb, and how his body was laid; and, being returned, prepared spices and ointments."

SECTION IV.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary continue to sit oppo

3. The accounts given of the conduct of the women, when they arrived at the tomb, imply a first and second company. And besides the vision to Mary Magdalene alone, there were two angelic appearances and speeches, each to a different set of women, in the tomb.

St. John says, that when Mary Magdalene saw the stone taken away from the tomb, she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid him,” xx. 2. As these words evidently imply that the other women who came to the tomb with Mary Magdalene, felt the same disappointment and concern with her in the same situation; so also they clearly shew that, before the women entered the tomb, they were very well assured that the body of Jesus was not in it. They imply another thing: that so early was the arrival of the women at the tomb, that they had not the smallest idea that any of his friends would be there before them to get it open.

But this will receive still greater confirmation from the two subsequent positions.

4. The accounts given of the behaviour of the women in the tomb, are accounts of two different parties.

The women, whom St. Matthew and St. Mark speak of, were affrighted, not only at the first sight of the angel, but after he had done speaking to them. Both Evangelists represent them as hastening away from his presence, by going out quickly, and fleeing from the tomb.

But the women described by St. Luke were calm and composed; and, if they had recovered such presence of mind while the angels were yet speaking, there is no reason to imagine that, having heard such happy intelligence, they were then seized with a sudden terror, and fled from the tomb trembling and amazed. St. Luke's words certainly convey no such idea of their departure from it.

5. The speech of the two angels considered as spoken to a subsequent company has an obvious propriety.

It would be presumption to affirm antecedently what the two angels ought or ought not to have spoken; but when we have their speech before us, we may examine and judge, whether the circumstances of it suit better with the whole company of the women, or with one part of them, not exactly in the same situation with the other. If the women did not visit the tomb all together, the going thither of Joanna and her party has been rightly placed, after Mary Magdalene had left it a second time and then our Lord had showed himself to her. And but a short space intervened between this going thither, and his. meeting the two Maries and Salome, saying unto them, "All hail!" At this juncture it was that the two angels were addressing themselves to Joanna, and those who had just searched the tomb with her. When therefore Christ was not only risen, but had appeared in that body which the Father had raised from the grave, it might well be asked of those, who were much perplexed because they found not his body where it had been deposited, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"

In every point of view, then, the division of the women into two distinct companies, going successively to the tomb on the morning of the resurrection, corresponds exactly with the

N n

Jerusalem.

Mtxxvii.61.

site the Sepulchre, till it is too late to prepare their
Spices.

MATT. xxvii. 61.

And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, Jerusalem. sitting over against the sepulchre*.

SECTION V.

Mtxxvii.62.

The Sabbath being ended, the Chief Priests prepare a
Guard of Soldiers to watch the Sepulchre3.

MATT. XXVii. 62-66.

Now the next day, that followed the day of the prepa-
ration, the chief priests and Pharisees came together
unto Pilate,

evangelical accounts of the incidents of that morning. It em-
braces all the circumstances related of the women, and of the
angels seen by them, and unites the whole into one intelligible
consistent history.

See, both for this and the subsequent notes on the following
sections, Cranfield's Harmony of the Resurrection, and Dr.
Townson's Discourses, with their references.

We read, in Matt. xxvii. 59. "And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new sepulchre, which he had hewn out in the rock, and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. And (or But) Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting over against the tomb." The words seem to imply an opposition between the departing of Joseph, and the abiding of the two women; and that this sitting over against the tomb was subsequent to the closing of it with a great stone. This solemn act could not force them away from the object of their grief. They still lingered as near to it as they could, sitting on the ground. And in this posture of mourning they continued, till reverence for the sabbath obliged them to retire; when it was too late to prepare their contingent of spices.-Dr. Townson, vol. ii. p. 86.

5 This conduct of the Pharisees and Chief Priests compelled them also to become unwilling witnesses of the resurrection of our Lord. The attempt of the women to enter the sepulchre on the morning when he arose, sufficiently proves that they had not anticipated any other obstacle to the embalming the body, but that which might be occasioned by the size of the stone. They were utterly unprepared to meet with a guard, or to find the seal of the Sanhedrim on the tomb. This conduct, however, of the rulers of the people, was attended with many important advantages. They satisfied themselves that the dead body was safely lying in the tomb, before they proceeded to place the seal. Their testimony; therefore, that our Lord was really dead, must have corroborated in the strongest manner the great truth of the resurrection, and that our Lord had risen, as the Apostles declared; for no common power could have eluded the jealous caution of the rulers, or have escaped the proverbial vigilance of a Roman guard, Their sealing the sepulchre also, prevented the violation of the tomb, by any of the guard themselves; who might have been tempted to steal the spices in which the body was inclosed.

Mtxxvii.63.

64.

65.

66.

Mark xvi. 1.

Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while Jerusalem. he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.

Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.

Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as you can.

So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

SECTION VI.

The Sabbath being over, Mary Magdalene, the other
Mary, and Salome, purchase their Spices, to anoint
the Body of Christ.

MARK XVI. 1.

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him o.

SECTION VII.

The Morning of Easter-Day-Mary Magdalene, the other
Mary, and Salome, leave their Homes very early to go
to the Sepulchre.

MATT. xxviii. 1.-MARK xvi. part of ver. 2.-JOHN XX.
part of ver. 1.

Mt. xxviii.1. And after the sabbath7,

6

• The word nyópaσav properly signifies, not, they had bought,
but they bought. The vulgates render it "emerunt." Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary had staid at the sepulchre till
it was too late to buy their spices; but both they and Salome
took the earliest opportunity of procuring them after the sab-
bath was over; that is, after six o'clock in the evening of Sa-
turday, the day preceding the resurrection. The word was
rendered "had bought," by our trauslators, on sufficient autho-
rity, for the perfect tense is sometimes used in this manner.
(See Chandler on Matt. xxviii. 17.) It is, however, most pro.
bable, that they supposed this translation to be absolutely ne
cessary to render the Evangelists consistent with themselves.
In Luke xxiii. 56 they read that the spices were prepared be-
fore the evening of the sabbath. They supposed, according to
the general notion, that there was one party only of women; and
imagined there would be an absurdity in so translating Mark
xvi. 1. as if that one party had procured additional spices after
the sabbath. Whereas it is by a scrupulous adherence to the
plain meaning of the Scripture, that all difficulties are removed.
The comparison of these two passages might alone have been
sufficient to shew that there were two parties of women.
seems to have escaped the attention of Mr. Valpy; who, in his
valuable edition of the Greek Testament, observes, that the
word ought to be rendered as if it was preterpluperfect. His
argument is derived from Luke xxiii. 56. which refers only to
the other party of women.

This

7 We now come to the question concerning the time when